Safe Speeds
To expand on one of the components of the Safe System Approach, “Safe Speeds” have been emphasized since there is a direct correlation between vehicle speed and the likelihood of crash occurrence, seriousness of injury and the odds of a fatality. For example, the risk of a pedestrian fatality for different vehicle speeds is below.
Pedestrian Survival Rate by Vehicle Speed
Prevalence of Speeding:
In 2023, according to Transport Canada’s National Collision Statistics, 25% of fatal collisions involved speeding according to police investigations. (Canadian Motor Vehicle Traffic Collision Statistics: 2023) This percentage was about 10% higher than that for 2022 (22%) but the same as e in 2020 (25%).
Countermeasures:
The goal of countermeasures is to reduce speeds to levels where any impact that occurs can be tolerated by the human body. One effective way to achieve this goal is through road network planning and design. On major roads, this may include narrower lanes, roundabouts, and median barriers that influence drivers to voluntarily reduce their speed. In residential areas, municipalities have implemented such measures as speed bumps or humps (humps being less aggressive), narrowed streets, and curb extensions. Some municipalities are using temporary signs on residential roads to narrow the lanes and thereby reduce speeds. Some municipalities are reducing speed limits in residential areas, school zones and high-pedestrian areas to 30 or 40 km/hr.
Police enforcement is an important and necessary measure for speed management. In many countries, speed enforcement has significantly evolved over the past 10 years. There has been a general increase in the focus of enforcement efforts and the increasingly widespread introduction of automatic speed enforcement (ASE) (e.g., speed cameras), which gives a new dimension to the enforcement effort. If undertaken appropriately, speed enforcement has been shown to be a very powerful deterrent that contributes directly to reducing the incidence of speeding and consequently, the frequency and severity of crashes.
The state of speed camera programs in Canada has been described in the following report by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation: IIHS Speed Enforcement.
Multiple research studies suggest that injury crash reductions can be in the range of 20 to 25% at conspicuous, fixed speed camera sites, and there is also evidence of significant crash reductions through mobile enforcement programs in Canada and the United States.
A study conducted by the Toronto Sick Kids Hospital found that ASE was effective in reducing speeds and injuries. Automated speed enforcement significantly reduces speeding in Toronto school zones
Some cities are mounting digital signs at the roadside which display a driver’s speed as they approach the sign in order to encourage them to slow down. Manufacturers of these signs claim that they are effective (How Effective Are Radar Speed Signs? - Radar sign - Radar Speed Signs) Local governments, as well as provincial/territorial governments, conduct awareness campaigns to remind drivers that speeding is dangerous.
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